Ukraine's national energy company assesses chances of second blackout

It is absolutely impossible to guarantee that there will be no repeat of the blackout, as Russian strikes can be completely different.

Source: Vitalii Zaichenko, chief dispatcher at Ukrenergo, Ukraine's national energy company, in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda 

Quote from Zaichenko: "We understand that we are at war, and the aggressor is stockpiling missiles. We are seeing arms deliveries from North Korea and Iran. It is absolutely impossible to guarantee that there will be no blackout, as strikes can be entirely different. If we take the risk of attacks out of the equation, however, I see no risk of a massive systemic failure."

Zaichenko added that hundreds of Russian hacker attacks on the dispatch centre occur every day. However, thanks to a strong cybersecurity team, none of the attacks have been successful.

At the same time, Zaichenko emphasised that electricity consumption in Ukraine by both industry and domestic consumers is currently increasing.

"Yesterday [the interview was recorded on 11 January], we had another record level of consumption since the beginning of the war. We managed to cover this record level due to three factors. First, a sufficient part of the generation was restored. We turned on everything that could be turned on. 

Second, due to the mild December, there is a high water flow in the Dnipro and Desna rivers. Yesterday, winter electricity generation was the highest in the history of hydroelectric power plants," Ukrenergo’s chief dispatcher noted.

The third factor is the severe weather, due to which more than a thousand settlements were disconnected on 10 January, representing over 600 megawatts, Zaichenko said. 

"If it hadn’t been for the disconnections, we might not have been able to cover the entire shortfall," Zaichenko pointed out.

Background: The Ministry of Energy is urging people to conserve electricity during peak hours due to high consumption.

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